2020/2021 Mycenaean Greek
Code: 100417 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500243 Classics OT 3 0
2500243 Classics OT 4 0
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.
Contact Use of Languages
Name: Carlos Varias García Principal working language: catalan (cat) Email: [email protected] Some groups entirely in English: No Some groups entirely in Catalan: Yes Some groups entirely in Spanish: No Teachers
Carlos Varias García
Prerequisites
None
Objectives and Contextualisation
This optional subject of the 3rd and 4rd years of the Bachelor's Degree in Classical Studies is programmed for two mentions of this Degree: Mention in Sources for the study of the Ancient and Medieval world and Mention in Greek.
Description: This course will explore the earliest readable documents in western civilization, the texts of clay tablets, sealings and labels (and a few transport vases) written in a pre-alphabetic script known as Linear B. Linear B was used by the inhabitants of the Mycenaean palatial culture of mainland Greece and the island of Crete from 1400 BCE (and perhaps earlier) until the collapse of this form of high culture ca. 1200 BCE. These texts preserve our earliest examples of the Greek language, pre-dating our earliest alphabetic texts (inscriptions and literary texts) by over four centuries.
Formative aims: The aims of this course are five:
1/ To familiarize ourselves with the structure of Linear B script in relationship to other writing systems used to represent Greek (i.e., the Cypriote Syllabic Script and the Greek alphabet) and to consider how well Linear B worked as a vehicle for recording Greek as 'visible speech';
2/ To understand the syntax and system of communication of the ca. 5,000 Linear B texts;
3/ To sample the lexicon and phonology and morphology of Mycenaean Greek and the relationship of the Mycenaean 'dialect' to the later historical Greek dialects, including Homer;
1 4/ To understand Mycenaean Greek culture through the contents of the tablets in relationship with archaeologiccal discoveries;
5/ To learn how to 'read' historical texts.
Competences
Classics Applying the acquired grammar knowledge to the analysis and comprehension of Greek and Latin texts. Obtaining information from the study of written Greek and Latin sources, that allow to access several aspects of the realia (sociocultural reality of the ancient world). Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study. Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
Learning Outcomes
1. Applying techniques in order to quickly and completely understand texts in Greek. 2. Applying the notions of Indo-European linguistics to the corresponding knowledge of the Greek or Latin language. 3. Arguing and contrasting information coming from written sources and information of archaeological origin in relation with historical processes or facts. 4. Autonomously searching, selecting and processing information both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialized magazines) and from across the network. 5. Detecting and extracting historical and cultural relevant data from ancient sources. 6. Locate truthful and meaningful to the reading and interpretation of literary texts or epigraphic information. 7. Using epigraphic texts as historical and literary sources. 8. Using in an efficient and autonomous manner the basic philological tools. 9. Using specialised databases in order to obtain information about literature and ancient epigraphy.
Content
1. Introduction to the 2nd-millennium Aegean.
2. How writing developed in and around Greece: Cretan Hieroglyphic, Minoan Linear A, Mycenaesn Linear B, Cypro-Minoan writing, Cypriote Syllabic Script, the Greek alphabet.
3. Chronology, typology and content-classification of Linear B texts.
4. The Linear B writing system: structure and operating principles in relationship to the Greek language (1400-1200 BCE).
5. Mycenaean Greek phonetics and phonology.
6. Mycenaean Greek morphology.
7. Mycenaean Greek lexicon and syntax.
8. Mycenaean Greek dialect.
9. The contents of Linear B texts and general features of Mycenaean civilization: social and political structure, cult and religion, economy, warfare, general assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of palatial culture. Some attention will be paid to important issues of current scholarship: the status of Mycenaean scribes and
literacy; personal names and place names (onomastics, prosopography and toponymics); the organization of 2 literacy; personal names and place names (onomastics, prosopography and toponymics); the organization of the Mycenaean economy; divine names in Linear B, especiallly at Thebes; kingship; regionalism in the Mycenaean palatial period.
N.B.: There are two compulsory readings in this subject: a book and a book's chapter, detailed in the "Assessment" section, which will be reviewed.
Methodology
After the preliminary explanations by the teacher of the first four topics listed in the previous section, the methodology will consist of periodic assignments for students to work on Mycenaean Greek texts and analyze them according to the themes we are considering, following the pattern which the teacher will have been previously given them. These inscriptions will be used to explain the other topics of the subject (5-9), referring to the Mycenaean Greek dialect and to the features of the Mycenaean civilization.
Regarding the compulsory readings, the students will have to elaborate small assignments to prove they have read each one of the readings.
Activities
Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed
Exercises of commentary of texts 21 0.84 2, 1, 5, 8, 7
Explanation of the subject's contents 18 0.72 2, 1, 5, 3, 9, 7
Oral presentation of a paper 9 0.36 2, 1, 5, 3, 6, 8, 7
Type: Supervised
Supervision of the written composition of a paper 11 0.44 2, 9, 6, 8, 7
Tutorials 16 0.64 2, 1, 5
Type: Autonomous
Compulsory readings and reviews 20 0.8 2, 5, 6, 8
Writing of a paper 55 2.2 2, 1, 4, 5, 3, 9, 6, 8, 7
Assessment
The subject's evaluation will be carried out following the activities listed in the table below.
In lectures the students will do different analyses of Mycenaean Greek texts in order to explain the subject's contents. It is very important that students take into account that regular lecture participation and the elaboration, submission of the exercises, translations and several activities proposed in class, will also be considered part of the evaluation.
The students will write an individual paper consisting of an analysis and commentary of a coherent group of Mycenaean inscriptions, previously chosen in agreement with the teacher. This paper will be submitted at the end of the course, and will also be orally presented to the rest of the students during 20 minutes.
The student will also write two reviews of the following compulsory readings:
- M. S. Ruipérez; J. L. Melena, Los griegos micénicos , Madrid 1990. 3 - M. S. Ruipérez; J. L. Melena, Los griegos micénicos , Madrid 1990.
- C. W. Shelmerdine, "Mycenaean society", en A Companion to Linear B... , vol. 1, pp. 115-158.
Those students that have submitted two activities, will not be able to renounce the assessment; in other words, s/he will not receive the grade "no avaluable" (impossible to assess) as a final qualification. It is essential to obtain a minimum score of 4/10 in each one of the assessment activities in order to make the final average grade. The final grade needs to be at least 5/10 to pass the subject. Only those students who have failed any exam or review with a mark lesser than 4/10 or those who have not achieved an average grade of 5/10 will be able to reassess the subject. Besides the lecture exercises, it will only be possible to reassess the mark of two assessment activities. The final score of any reassessment or review, that will be submitted on the reassessment day, will be "5".
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may leadto a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB's virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.
Assessment Activities
Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Elaboration of lecture exercises (and participation) 10% 0 0 2, 1, 5, 8, 7
Paper (oral presentation) 30% 0 0 2, 1, 5, 3, 6, 8, 7
Paper (writing) 35% 0 0 2, 1, 4, 5, 3, 9, 6, 8, 7
Review of the book's chapter: "Mycenaean Society" 10% 0 0 2, 5, 6, 8
Review of the book: "Los griegos micénicos" 15% 0 0 2, 5, 6, 8
Bibliography
The students will use a subject's handout, with some lessons and a selection of Linear B inscriptions.
The bibliography for Linear B studies depends on:
1/ The formal editions of Mycenaean inscriptions.
2/ The acta of formal Mycenological conferences and the acta of other specialized conferences of broader than purely Mycenological scope.
3/ The main profession journals: Minos, published in Salamanca, together with its very important supplemental monograph series; Studi micenei ed egeo-anatolici and Pasiphae, both published in Rome; Kadmos, published in Berlin, and Aegaeum, published in Liège and Austin.
4/ One can find analytical bibliographical syntheses year-by-year in Studies in Mycenaean Inscriptions and Dialect, now produced in Austin, TX USA; and also in the pages of the bibliographical index Nestor, along with other scholarship in Aegean prehistory (see below in the section "Webgraphy").
Basic bibliography:
AA.VV., El Mundo Micénico. Cinco siglos de la primera civilización europea (1600-1100 a. C.), (catalogue of 4 AA.VV., El Mundo Micénico. Cinco siglos de la primera civilización europea (1600-1100 a. C.), (catalogue of the exhibition held at the Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid 1992).
Aura Jorro, F., Diccionario micénico, vol. I, Madrid1985; vol. II, Madrid 1993.
Bartonek, A., Handbuch des mykenischen Griechisch, Heidelberg 2003.
Bernabé, A.; Luján, E. R., Introducción al griego micénico. Gramática, selección de textos y glosario, Zaragoza 2006.
Chadwick, J., El enigma micénico. El desciframiento de la escritura lineal B, Madrid 1966.
Chadwick, J., El mundo micénico, Madrid 1977.
Chadwick, J., Linear B and Related Scripts, London 1987.
Chantraine, P., Morfología histórica del griego, Reus 1974.
Cline, E. H. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean, Oxford 2010.
Del Freo, M.; Perna, M. (eds.), Manuale di epigrafia micenea. Introduzione allo studio dei testi in lineare B, Limena 2016.
Duhoux, Y.; Morpurgo Davies, Anna (eds.), A Companion to Linear B. Mycenaean Greek Texts and their World , Louvain-la-Neuve, vol. I, 2008; vol. II, 2011; vol. III, 2014.
Hajnal, I., Studien zum mykenischen Kasussystem, Berlin 1995.
Jiménez Delgado, J. M., Sintaxis del griego micénico, Sevilla 2016.
Killen, J. T., Economy and Administration in Mycenaean Greece. Collected Papers on Linear B, ed. by M. Del Freo, vol. I-III, Roma 2015.
Lejeune, M., Mémoires de philologie mycenienne, vol. I, Paris 1958; vol. II, Roma 1971; vol. III, Roma 1972; vol. IV, Roma 1997.
Lejeune, M., Phonétique historique du mycénien et du grec ancien, Paris 1972.
Melena, J. L., Ex Oriente Lux. La aportación de las filologías del Oriente Próximo y Medio Antiguo a la comprensión de los primeros textos europeos, Vitoria 1984.
Melena, J. L., Textos griegos micénicos comentados, Vitoria 2001 [working book, in PDF].
Olivier, J.-P., Les scribes de Cnossos. Essai de classement des archives d'un palais mycénien, Roma 1967.
Olsen, Barbara A., Women in Mycenaean Greece. The Linear B Tablets from Pylos and Knossos, New York 2014.
Palaima, T. G., The Scribes of Pylos, Roma 1988.
Palmer, L. R., The Interpretation of Mycenaean Greek Texts, Oxford 1963.
Piquero, J., El léxico del griego micénico. Index Graecitatis. Étude et mise à jour de la bibliographie, Nancy 2019.
Ruijgh, C. J., Études sur la grammaire et le vocabulairedu grec mycénien, Amsterdam 1967.
Ruipérez, M. S.; Melena, J. L., Los griegos micénicos, Madrid 1990 [compulsory reading].
Shelmerdine, Cynthia W. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age, Cambridge 2008.
Ventris, M.; Chadwick, J., Documents in Mycenaean Greek, Cambridge 19732. 5 Ventris, M.; Chadwick, J., Documents in Mycenaean Greek, Cambridge 19732.
Voutsaki, Sophia; Killen, J. T. (ed.), Economy and Politics in the Mycenaean Palace States, Cambridge 2001.
Webgraphy:
- http://bib.cervantesvirtual.com/portal/diccionariomicenico/ (web of the Diccionario Micénico).
- http://sites.utexas.edu/pasp/ (Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory, Univ. Texas).
- http://classics.uc.edu/nestor/ (journal Nestor).
- http://calibra.classics.cam.ac.uk (CaLiBRA: Cambridge Linear B Research Archive).
- http://www.aegeussociety.org/en/index.php/aegeus/ (Aegeus. Society for Aegean Prehistory).
- http://lila.sns.it/mnamon/ (Mnamon. Antiche scritture del Mediterraneo).
- http://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/research/projects/damos/ (DAMOS. Database of Mycenaean at Oslo).
- http://ddd.uab.cat/pub/expbib/2002/linealb/article.htm (bibliography exhibition at the Humanities Libary, UAB in June 2002, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Linear B decipherment).
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CgjVjl2bNU (A very English genius: life of Michael Ventris)
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